


Green Leaves

by kareskun



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bicycles, F/F, First Meetings, Idk there's just a lot of plants, Plants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 00:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10450641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kareskun/pseuds/kareskun
Summary: Jess accidentally crashes someone's plant and it goes downhill from there.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is for [Jane](http://willsdarcy.tumblr.com) who wrote this [fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10400382/chapters/22966392) based on a prompt I had reblogged, so this my take on that prompt.  
> (this does contain a fair amount of swearing but that's it)

The wind was blowing in Jess’ ears. She pedaled faster and faster, trying to control her bike on the bumpy road. This is the real deal, she thought and let loose a wild laugh. Karé was shouting obscenities at her which got lost in the wind. Jess simply lifted one hand flipped her off. She was going to win this race.

That was the moment it all fell apart. One loose stone she wasn’t expecting and Jess was tumbling of the road crashing into a – flowerpot? Okay, that couldn’t be right – she was just a bit dizzy. She had probably fallen into a heap of earth because this was out of town and there was earth everywhere. Not to forget, her left knee was burning and her right leg was stuck under the bike frame. Yeah, she was hurting alright and Karé rushing by and trailing a whoop behind her wasn’t making things better.

“Fuck you!”, Jess shouted as a farewell.

Slowly, she tried to push upon her hands to get herself out of the heap of dirt. It wasn’t working quite as well as she had hoped it would. Ugh, she thought to herself, how can everything ache so badly after only hurting your legs? She collapsed onto her back again. Yeah, she was going to sleep here till – hm, maybe forever. It wasn’t that bad of a view. The sky was a rich light blue and there were wisps of clouds spotted across it. A bit of a postcard sky, Jess mused.

However, it didn’t stay that serene for long. Soon, there was Karé’s dark face above her with a hell of a smile and her rough trademark laugh.

“Well. Shit.”

“Yeah no crapping fuck but you are the worst friend ever, just leaving me alone to die at the side of the road”, Jess replied.

“Oh yeah, you are totally wasting away in that flowerpot.”

“Fuck yeah I am! My last breath is leaving my body and – a flowerpot??”

“I think it was a pretty nice plant before you ran into it”, Karé said with a casual nod.

“I should feel bad right? I don’t really. Although the frame is kinda crushing my leg and I’m kinda focused on not dying at the moment, so...”

“Because I’m such a good friend I will gladly help you with that”, Karé replied as she deigned herself to lift the bike of Jess.

The pain in her right leg alleviated quite a bit and Jess got herself together to inspect the damage the fall had done to her. First she pulled up the legs of her pants, and sure enough, there was already a big fat bruise blooming on her lower right leg and her left knee was scrapped to oblivion. Including the pants, which now had a large stylish hole in them. She probed at the gashes and hissed when they, predictably, hurt. Karé offered her her hand and pulled Jess up.

Still slightly reeling from the shock, Jess surveyed the scene. Karé was right. She hadn’t, as previously believed, crashed into a heap of dirt on the side of the road, but into a flowerpot in the front yard of a house. Well, front yard was overstating it a bit. It wasn’t the perfectly manicured lawn of a suburban house but a rocky area in front of the house, with a few plants here and there. The house looked pretty normal, although it did have a flat roof and was made entirely made from sandstone. The front door was on the side perpendicular to the road they had come from. There were fields on either side, as well as behind the house as far as she could see. The yard had a fence on the side separating it from the field. Without it, Jess mused, you wouldn’t actually know where the field ended and where the yard began because they were the same rocky earth. The house seemed to be longer to the backside – the left, facing from the street. Maybe a garage. It wasn’t idyllic, per se, but the green from the occasional plants did help to make it more home-y. From analyzing the general she let her eyes wander to the particular: the massacre she made. 

She had crashed front half of the rather large flowerpot, so that the back half was still standing. However, this had not prevented the plant that formerly inhabited the pot looking like mashed potato. In addition, all the earth had spilled out. When she went to look at her bike, she discovered that it was surprisingly, still working.

Technically, the bike wasn’t even hers. Technically, she had just scratched a work bike, which she had taken for a test drive. She worked at a bike shop in town, called The Resistance. They specialized in “cool” bikes – BMX, mountain bikes, the occasional racing bike, and ones that were cool but for everyday use (no such things as Dutch roadster bikes. Not only didn’t they have any speed behind them but they were also exceptionally bad for your back). They also repaired and pimped bikes. Along with Karé and a couple of other friends they were an incredibly close-knit group there. Everyone was pretty much her family. Although she hadn’t yet convinced the General, their manager, to give up the “interstellar orange”. 

Growing up, Jess had always had a thing for bikes. There was so much possibility in them. You could go anywhere with a bike. In addition, it was incredibly satisfying to feel the wind in your hair knowing that this speed is purely your work. So yeah. Bikes. Her one and only passion. Although, she had thing for cars too. Anything mechanic that you can tinker with wasn’t safe from Jess. Her life goal was to construct a bike with which she could finally beat Poe, their best and fastest rider, and also her boss. 

Currently, she was trying to assess whether they should run away at once or be nice and clean up their mess.

“Karé”, she asked sweetly. “Would you mind checking out whether anyone is home? Thank you! You are a life saver! My best friend ever!”

Karé punched her in the arm as a response. Then, she disappeared around the corner and Jess got to work. She carefully cleaned up all the shards and stacked them in the largely intact other half of the pot next to her bike. She pulled out the plant – or what was left of it. The green massacre was an exceptionally sorry sight. She would have to somehow replace it. Jess considered taking off her helmet to use it to clean up the earth but ultimately decided against it. Although the last time she had washed her hair was three days ago, dirt on her head wouldn’t score her any points with the ladies. A loud sigh escaped her. To get something done, at least, she took the shards and the mashed plant to the field next to the house. Her plan was to discard them in a concealed corner and hope no one saw her crossing in her garishly orange shirt. She turned to leave when she heard a shout from behind her.

“Hey Testor!”

Jess turned to see Karé striding up around the house wearing a big fat grin. “What is it? Have you discovered a secret hideout full of expensive hair product?”

“First of all, you know that I don’t need product for this beauty”, Karé replied, pointing to her meticulously kept short blonde curls, “and secondly, there’s a cute girl in the garage working on a car. She can’t hear us though, having headphones in and all. I heard her blasting Joan Jett from five meters away. You should check it out. It’s quite a car.”

Crossing her arms over chest, Jess said: “Yeah, I’m gonna stop you right there. Knowing you, it’s probably some old fat guy with a crappy pickup truck or some other shit and I’m not gonna take that risk to become the joke of the week for three months again.”

Karé regarded her with a look that said, would I dare to do such a thing?, and then, snorted.

“Alright, I get your point, but, consider this: I’m not lying and she’s really cute”, Karé said and raised her eyebrows.

Curiosity winning her over, Jess shrugged her shoulders and then, without further ado, threw the plant corpse and the sorry remains of the flowerpot over the fence into the field. She jogged to catch up with Karé and together they rounded the corner of the garage. Surprisingly, Karé had not been lying for once. The garage door was open to let in fresh air and light and inside Jess could see a girl working on an old VW Käfer. In all honesty, it did look a bit decrepit and like it needed a lot of work. 

The girl, on the other hand, looked more than cute. Karé had been lying about this. She wasn’t cute, she was radiant. It was as if she was glowing from the inside out. A small smile played on the girl’s lips as she reached for a wrench to adjust the wheel suspension. A mirror smile started to form on Jess’ face. The girl stuck her tongue out between her lips deep in concentration. Then, Jess noticed the faint music coming from the girl’s headphones. About this, Karé had been right. Joan Jett was blasting and the girl was fully immersed in her work. This gave Jess a little time to study her before she had to be out of here to clean up the wreckage she had caused. The girl had her brown hair up in three buns stacked over each other and her hairline was wet. Oil was smeared across her face and her ocher tank top as well as her dark brown cargo pants. Interrupting her staring, Karé elbowed Jess in the stomach and dragged her away as the girl started humming.

“Aaaand? What did I say?”, Karé said suggestively as soon as they were back at their bikes and the massacre. 

“You were right. She was cute”, Jess replied, but before she could admit to Karé how much of an impact she had had on her she caught herself: “That beetle though. What a beauty. I would sell my first-born for it.” 

After cleaning up the spilled earth, Jess and Karé jumped on their bikes to get back to the shop. During the ride Jess could hardly keep her thoughts of the mechanic girl. She had looked so peaceful doing her work. She would probably be a really cool person to hang out with, Jess thought, which immediately made her guilty for crashing into her plant. A small knot of worry formed in Jess’ stomach when she imagined the girl’s reaction when she found out her plant was gone. She was gonna replace it, Jess resolved. Although she had no idea what kind of plant she had murdered, she figured she could just improvise when she got to the garden center. 

“Boss! We’re back!” Jess shouted as a greeting when she crashed into the shop.

She took of her helmet and shook her hair. Behind her, Karé mirrored her action, although with far less hair whipping around. Poe emerged from the door leading to the garage. (It wasn’t a proper garage, really, considering they only fixed bikes in there, but they all liked to call it that.)

He came up to them take their Jess’ bike off her hands and said: “How was it?”

Jess gave him a thumbs up. “Awesome. Although, it has a few scratches now. Nothing to worry about, but they are there. I also want to add that it isn’t my fault, there was a rock on the road. So yeah, it’s mainly the rock’s fault.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Testor?”, Poe replied and rubbed a hand over his face. 

“Come on boss, you know that I will fix it in like, 10 minutes, and also I would need some cash because I kinda ran into a plant of this girl and I have to replace it and since this was a work event – ”  
“In 10 minutes when you have fixed this bike and you’ll pay for drinks tomorrow”, Poe simply said and then proceeded to carry the bike into the garage.

Karé excused herself to go put her own bike back and Jess followed Poe into the garage. She proceeded to fix up the bike and then took it out to proudly present it to Poe. She grabbed some cash out of the register, put on her helmet, and hoped on her own bike. She quickly rode to the garden center and wasn’t even sweating that much when she arrived there. 

She entered the center and was immediately caught a blast of humid air carrying the smell of dirt and green. That fresh smell that makes you believe that the planet isn’t wholly dead yet. Finding her way to the plants she tried conjure up at least some idea of how her murder victim had looked. The only thing she could think of was a wet mess of green. So when she reached the bigger plants, she tried to choose green ones with a lot of big leaves. Some looked like ferns, she suspected. Jess knew zero about plants so she got as many as she could pay for (and fit in her basket), and left the store. 

Praying that the girl was still working in the garage so she could deposit her repayments silently and undiscovered, Jess quickly rode back to the crime scene. When she arrived there, a horrible realization sunk her stomach. The other few plants that were deposited around the yard all had some kind of flowers on them. This would mean hers would need too. Thinking that the ones she had just bought would do for today, she quickly put the plants down and surveyed the yard again. They did fit in. Kind of. She would need to rectify this. But not today. Today, she would treat herself to a shower and then patch up her knee, while watching horrible movies with Karé, Iolo, and Poe.

The next few days, she went to the garden center daily to buy new plants because they all never really looked like the girl’s. Her front yard slowly filled up with plants as Jess’ allowance for this month slowly dwindled into nothing.

It was a rather slow day and Jess had shop duty. To occupy herself with something she was writing down ideas how to further pimp her bike. Their communal cat, (it was actually Poe’s but no-one cared), Beebee-ate (that name had been Poe’s idea too), was sleeping on her lap. Jess was halfway through doing a sketch of an improved gear system that would help her increase her speed when she heard a faintly British accent above her.

“Hello! Your cat’s really cute!”

“Hi! Thank you – he sleeps like 80% of the day –”

Jess had looked up while she was gently trying to remove Beebee-ate from her lap. What she saw there made her lose her breath. It was the girl – the girl – standing right in front of her with a sheepish smile on her face. Fuck fuck fuck went through her head in an endless loop. She was about to sprint to the counter to hide behind there. But she couldn’t know who she was, Jess assured herself. The girl looked even more brilliant than the last time. This time, she had her hair open and a cleaner face than before. She was wearing overalls and a white t-shirt. And, yes, she was cute. And, yes, Jess might be starting to develop a little crush. Putting on what she hoped was a dazzling smile (and oh god she was wearing orange right? Orange always looked horrible on her), she handed Beebee-ate over to the girl for her to hold him.

Beebee-ate immediately took to her. It wasn’t really a surprise, Beebeeb-ate took to everyone in the span of five minutes who wasn’t actively being mean to the ones he already adored. Damn, she looked cute with him in her arms, Jess thought. Yet she did also look like she was about to abduct Beebee-ate to take him home with her. 

“Oh god! He’s so cute! I want to hold him forever! What’s his name?”

“Beebee-ate”, Jess supplied, blushing for no apparent reason, “The name’s not my fault though. My boss had the honor of doing so.”

At that moment, a call came from across the store: “Rey! When you’re done with that undeniably cute cat, can you come help me please?” 

Rey. That’s her name. Rey. It fit her perfectly. Jess would normally need about five hours to digest this information but it seemed like she had business to attend to. The call had come from a young man wearing a leather jacket – which looked somehow familiar – standing by the bikes more fit for everyday use. 

“Coming!”, Rey replied sending the guy a grin. Then she turned to address Jess.

“So, as you might have heard, my friend needs help and I’m not really good with bikes – I’m more of a car girl – so could you maybe help?”

“Of course, that’s what I’m here for!”

Jess motioned for her to lead the way and they went over to her friend. He was staring quite intensely at some bike, while looking like someone who had no idea what he was doing. Jess approached him, shaking his hand and going through her spiel. Even though she didn’t really like interacting with the customers, this guy seemed cool enough.

“Hi, my name’s Jess, what can I help you with?” 

“Hi! I’m Finn. I kinda need to get a bike since I have a new job and Rey hasn’t fixed the car yet… is there any you recommend?”

While Jess went through the options for Finn, she stole the occasional glance at Rey, who actually had Beebee-ate following her around. She occasionally asked question about the technical aspects of the bikes they were looking at. Jess tried to take the presence of her maybe-crush in stride and actually managed to make a couple of jokes, at which Rey’s raucous laughter filled the room. A blessed sound, Jess thought. When they were in the middle of sorting out the last details of the purchase, Karé came in from the garage in her orange coveralls. 

“Hey Testor, Snap’s getting – OH!” 

She made a suggestive wiggle with her eyebrow and disappeared again. Jess didn’t have to wait long to find out where she had gone. She soon reappeared, with Iolo on her coat tails. She then proceeded to furiously whisper to him and Jess definitely heard more than one incredulous “No!” from him. Jess did have that rubber band ball at hand and she was this close to chucking it at them. Rey, curious as to what they were doing inquired about who they were.

“Just horrible friends who won’t ask me what I want for lunch”, replied Jess with an arch look at them. 

Karé sauntered over to the counter, Iolo in fits behind her.

“So, Testor, Snap’s getting lunch, and he wanted to know what you want. And oh hi!” She said as she turned to Finn and Rey. “You two look cool. Do you want some lunch too? I think today’s pizza day?”

Jess swore she saw Rey blush a little bit. Finn nudged her and shot her a questioning look. They had a wordless conversation of which the outcome was that Rey politely declined the offer. 

“Cool! Maybe another day?” Karé asked slyly with such an insinuating look that Jess prayed Finn and Rey couldn’t decipher. “So what do you want, Testor?”

“Ahm, the usual. Also, why is Iolo killing himself laughing?”

At this point Iolo was lying on the ground, breathing heavily with tears streaming down his face. Karé pouted innocently.

“I don’t know? This general situation? Life? He showed me this meme and it was hilarious?”

Karé and Iolo showed themselves out, although Iolo still could barely walk with the effort of trying to stop laughing. Jess quickly finished her business and then took her daily ride to the garden center to clear her head. She was undeniably fucked. 

In addition, Rey’s yard was starting to disappear under all the plants she delivered. Hm. Maybe she should stop. Although, if Jess was honest to herself, this wasn’t about the plants anymore. She guessed she just wanted to meet Rey again? And coming to her house every day with a load of plants was the best way of doing that?

It was half a week later and Jess just got off garage duty. She pulled out of the upper half of her garishly orange coveralls and tied the arms around her hips. Underneath, she was wearing a simple navy blue tank top. She pulled her hair-band out of her hair and shook it. She then retied it and put her helmet on. It was rather warm today. On the ride to the garden center, she mentally counted the money she had on her today. It would probably be just one pot today. Wanting to go full out, she chose the fanciest and biggest one with the money she had on hand.

Riding to Rey’s house, she started whistling. The nice weather was getting to her. She arrived, jumped down from her bike, and parked it. Jess took out the plant and started to maker her way over to Rey’s yard when she suddenly heard footsteps. Panic flooded her system. Yes, she wanted to meet Rey again, but also, she didn’t want to be seen doing this? What was so hard to get? She had basically murdered that girl’s plant! When Rey found out, she was going to hate Jess. 

Her brain short-circuited and she did the only sensible thing. She held the plant up so she could hide behind it. No matter that there were still her bright orange legs sticking out from under it, and that she couldn’t see who was approaching. Jess blew a big leaf out of her eyes and peeked around another one. Both unfortunately and fortunately, she could see Rey rounding the corner of the house. Closing her eyes, she prayed for the best.

“Hi?” Jess heard Rey ask cautiously. “Are you the person who keeps on delivering plants?”

That didn’t sound too bad, but then Rey hadn’t seen her face yet. Jess slowly lowered the plant she was holding.

“Yeah?”

Rey made a small surprised sound at seeing her. 

“Oh! Jess, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and I’m so sorry I might have crashed into one of your plants a while ago and I didn’t know which plant it was because I have the botanical knowledge of a penguin so I got all different kinds and –” 

“Oh god! Thank you so much! I don’t actually know what kind of plants I have – although Finn might know – but I love the green and I was wondering who put plants in my yard every day and thank you so much!” A huge grin spread across Rey’s face. “Can I give you a hug? I have to warn you though, I smell horribly like sweat and oil.” Rey’s cheeks heated up a bit.

Suddenly Jess got really flustered. This was what she had wanted but god, Rey was so cute. She put down plant she was holding.

“No worries. It’s not like I smell any better.”

Rey came in and hugged her. They fit perfectly. Jess admitted to herself, that this did feel a little bit like coming home. She could have stayed there forever. She snuggled her face a bit deeper in Rey’s shoulder. Nevertheless, the awkwardness of the length of the hug was slowly creeping upon her. Gently, she disentangled herself from Rey’s arms. Maybe she was imagining it, but Rey’s look mirrored the disappointment in her stomach about the end of the hug. 

Jess stooped down to collect the plant. Throwing Rey an excusing look, she quickly put it to other plants on the yard. When she came back to Rey, the latter was rocking on her feet. Jess nervously ran a hand through her hair.

“So, I guess, I gotta get going…”

“No, no stay here, and have a … a tea? I was just taking a break to get one anyway.”

“Oh, what were you working on?”

In all honesty, Jess already knew the answer, but she maybe wanted to see the beetle again or even maybe see Rey work on it?

“Nothing big, just this project of mine. It’s an old beetle. Do you want to see?”

It was night when Jess left. They had spent the entire afternoon working on Rey’s beetle together, laughing, blasting Joan Jett, and impromptu headbanging sessions. When Jess hoped on her bike, Rey approached her and gave her a quick kiss on the lips as a goodbye. And no, Jess didn’t fall of her bike.

**Author's Note:**

> this was my first fic ever, so tell me what you think you think please. you can find me on [tumblr](http://divinetheta.tumblr.com/) where you can talk to me about the resistance whom i adore?


End file.
